Beets

Although beets, or beetroots, technically, are not green vegetables, they provide many health benefits and a crop of beets would be a wonderful addition to many gardens.

Beets are rich in iron. They also contain calcium, magnesium, manganese, potassium, phosphorus, folic acid, Vitamin A, Vitamin B2, Vitamin B6, Vitamin C, and Vitamin K.

The best beets are grown on light, sandy soil, but you can grow beets on any soil.

You can grow beets on clay soil if you work the soil and pulverize it over the winter.

Do not plant beets in soil that has been manured recently. It is fine to use soil that was manured for a previous crop.

Adding potassium sulfate and superphosphate to soil before you plant beets will aid their growth. Ammonium sulfate may also be added to poor soil.

If you use clay soil, sow your beet seeds two weeks later than you would sow them on other types of soil, so that the roots don't grow too large.

With other soils, beet seeds should be sown from the end of April through the third week of May, in drills that are one foot apart and two inches deep.

When the plants are two inches high, thin them out until they are four inches apart.

Keep the surface soil loose and clean over the summer.

Lift up the roots in October, when the weather is dry.

Try not to damage the roots when you lift them.

If the soil is too hard for you to pick up the beets by the tops, dig a trench along a row of beets and then loosen the soil with a spade that is behind the roots but far from them. Once the soil is loosened in this manner, you will be able to lift the roots without damaging them.